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  • Editorial: A result, but no conclusion

Jay Elwes

Editorial: A result, but no conclusion

by Jay Elwes / July 14, 2016 / Leave a comment
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Published in August 2016 issue of Prospect Magazine

image001The European Union referendum delivered a startling result—but not a conclusion. Having voted to leave the EU, Britain faces more questions and uncertainty than it has for a generation and the drive to find solutions to those challenges has only just begun.

Britain’s new Prime Minster will face a dramatically changed political landscape, dominated by worries about immigration, the economy, the possibility of a second Scottish independence referendum and uncertainty over the nation’s international standing, the last of these having been dealt a series of hammer-blows by the judgments of the Chilcot report. All of these issues are examined in these pages.

As for the EU, before negotiations can begin, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, has said that Britain must trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which starts the two-year countdown to departure from the EU.

The question of whether to engage Article 50 raises profound constitutional questions. If there were a Commons vote to trigger the article, Parliament would effectively have decided to throw off a host of international obligations. Should Parliament simply vote itself more power in this way? And then Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, is determined to keep Scotland in the EU, meaning that Article 50 could lead to the break-up of the country.

The significance of the article is hard to overstate. There is a case for holding a UK-wide vote on whether to trigger it. Once this is done and the EU negotiations begin, Britain will have to bargain with all 27 EU member states, each with its own political interests. Any change to the EU’s trade or other agreements with a post-Brexit Britain would require the assent of every EU member state—or put another way, a deal with Britain could be vetoed by any si…

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Comments

  1. E L
    July 14, 2016 at 07:53
    What is the case for holding a referendum on whether to trigger article 50? That's exactly what the referendum 2 weeks ago was.
  2. Peter William Bailey
    July 30, 2016 at 10:23
    The prospects for Britain and the EU are not great in the longer term unless they change. At this stage they have not appreciated that they cannot compete and should not have free market arrangements without a full appreciation of how economies work and why existing practices and tax systems will result in an unsustainable future. People work on GDP as the monitor for the economy and GDP should at least grow with the growth in population. Why should the USA, EU and Britain have a lower GDP than China? The EU migration problems result from a lack of understanding of how economies truly. Neither Capitalists nor Socialists can provide the right answers. When all is said and done it can be shown that countries have to go for full employment, the poor actually pay the taxes of the rich. Technology becomes a problem because robots do not consume goods and do not pay taxes and businesses will not exist without consumers. There is an answer. Change is essential for survival.

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Jay Elwes
Jay Elwes is a writer and journalist
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